The law of unintended consequences, that is. It seems that, as the Mega Lo Marts introduce auto-scanning checkout kiosks to feed customers through more "efficiently," people are buying fewer of those impulsive point-of-purchase items.

Up at 9am. No shower, no shave. Coffee. I sat down on my orange couch, opened the laptop and got to it. One more day of "Recommended Components."

Fans of <I>Sandman</I> will recognize this outbreak as one of the points of departure for the story arc begun in issue #1. What they may not realize is that Neil Gaiman wasn't making up the Sleeping Sickness: there really was an outbreak of <I>Encephalitis lethargica</I> from 1916 through the '20s.

George Saunders checks out the motherland.

<I>The Register</I> reports that scientists have developed a material with a negative refractive index, which means it causes light to bounce off it "backwards" at speeds that "appear faster than the speed of light."

Over at <I>Home Theater</I>'s website, Fleischmann's arch blend of understatement and geekiness is the sort of stuff I wish I could write consistently. A recommended daily read. Yes, I know him, and yes, I share an employer with him, but this encomium comes from the heart.

The competition's fierce, but KFC's new Famous Bowls just might take the, um, cake, according to Dan Neil.